MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 317, 26 May 1874, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Vfneland, New Jersey, the locality where spiritualism,, affinities, long-haired men nnd short-haired women abound was recently the scene of a two days' Anti-Fashion Conven-,. lion. The first day the female members squabbled over tho organization. After this wts over, a message was read, and then Mrs Olivia Sheparcl put hi the following resolution :■ — Resolved — 'That when the mother puts her girl into petticoats and her boy into trousers, she seals her girl's doom as a slave, and gives the boy a title-deed of ownership which ho records and presents against her whenever,, in after life, she asks for equal rights with him.' The next day the Convention openeel witli a discourse by Mrs Dr. Lucas, who wore ft tunic of olive green cloth r wtth knickerbockers and gaiters of the same cloth, the tunic gathered round the waist am) spanned by a black rub'-ter band with a small gilt clasp. Her address is often ranch longer than her dress. A Mr* Butler the came forward and wanted to know what the eiri of all the talk was to be. Was any woman going to take o!f one inch of her dress ? "What she proposed was an association of twenty-five women, who would agree to give up stays r furbelows, and flounces, and shorten their skirts. She exhibited two young ladies of Vineland who had never worn corsets, and the effect drew out the following : — ' We, the undersigned agree to wear our dresses four inches from the ground, provided twenty-five or more ladies can be found who will co-operate with v-> in the reform. — Mrs E. B. Duffy, A. N. M. Jtiartlett, Ellen Dickinson, A. M Nute, Rita Wewls.' This was signed by an old lady who showed her old black silk dress, which she had bought nine years ago, and hintod strongly that the ladies in pants on the platform spent more money ami showed more vantfy m> thenr reform dress than she did. The old lady, being regarded as a firebrand! was extinguished. Tho resolution given above is sensible, but will not prevail. The absurdity of some tif their propositions is shown by the fact that a- prominent speaker wore tunic and panls of crimson- velvet, wi+h n gold untch-chairc slung nrtistienlly neross the front. Jferheaddress wa* a blonde wig oflittlVcnrN, tookmji Irko-spun glas*,. surmounted by a page's cap of the 14th century, in winch ;m ostrich's feather was fastened by an aigrette of amethysts. The woman of the time urged anti-fashion- reform. Tho temble massacre known as the Sicilian. Vespers tock plnco ftfc Easier, in the year 1282. It was but a verification! of the old proverb of the trodden worm turning to bile iU oppressor's foot. At. thi* period the Sicilians were ruled over by a French prince o-f the Hou*e of Aujou. with » tyranny of the most cruel and gaiKng nature. Obnoxious to the Sicilinns from his nation, the people had as well ta beartlie presence of a licentious and brutal soldiery, to whom nothing was sacred ; and the history ef the times teems- ■ with accounts of the coarse insults to which- husbands and fathers o* nil dossos had to submit, as offered to those who were nearest and dearest of their families. Under such ■> long- couvse of oppression, it was but little wonder that thehot fire of Italian wrath should be smouldering, and waiting bnt for some slight fanning to leap into a devastating flaniothnt shou'd destroy all before it. The occasion arrived. Easter Monday being a grand f6te day, api ©cession ot thepeople of Palermo was formed to attend vespers at a neighbouring church ; when the French rulers, who- gazed with suspicion upon all gotheringa of the people, made this a> pretext for searching for arms. To a brutal, licentious soldiery, this supplied an opportunity for offering gross insults to the females, one of whom wa» a young married lady of great heauty and position. Her screams aroused the multitude ; the spark was laid to the train ; *nd led by thelady's father and husband, the people rose in tumult. Arms were seized, and an indiscriminate slaughter of all the French ro the city was the result. This was but the alarm note fon a general rising; and in town after town, upon that same day, massacres took place, the news flying swiftly, till not a place remained in the handi of the French but Messina. So hoi was the people's rage, and so long a reign of crueltyhad they to avenge, that mercy was forgotton — neither sex nor age was spared — French nationality being the passr word for death. Fortresses were attacked and carried,, sharp Jand decisive engagements took place, and garrison after garrison was slaughtered ; Messina only remaining at last to be tiken to free the island from the foreign yoke. But hare a pause ensued ; many of the more substantial inhabitants fearing the power of the insurgents as opposed to that of the trained soldiery. But again a spark illumined the fire. A citizen was seized by the French for appearingin public bearing arms, lie res^fc.'d, aided by frwids ; but beiag overcome, they were borne off to prison ; when, not content with tho conquest, the viceroy sent to arrest tho prisoners' wives. This injustice roused the people, whoflew to arms, attacked the French, and slaughtered above three thousand, driving the others into their fortresses, whick they took after an obstinate defence, and put the defenders to the sword. The insurrection, commencing as it did on the night of the Palermo procession, has since been known uy the name of the Sicilian. Vespers. The numbor of Erench put to the sword lias been- variously estimated afc from twenty to thirty thousand ; but, whatever the number, the slaughter was fierce and indiscriminate ; and, in spite of after-efforts to recover the territory, Sicily was from that time lost to the reigning King of Naples, Charles of Anjou. — Ouve a Week. There is, says the Saturday Review, a form of misery with which most of us have to make acquaintance at least onoe in our lires. Mankind has agreed to surround th& marriage ceremony with observance! of a distressing, not to say ridiculous, nature. It is generally assumed, we need not ask with what accuracy, tliat a marriage is in itself a cause foi»congratulation to the persons most immediately interested, and therefore it is inferred that they should suffer oheerfully the small deduction from their satisfaction which is involved m making themselves a show to their acq-uaintancei, and tcthe public generaHy. As the world becomes more oivilzed, there is a tendency to diminish the- quantity of ceremonial observed ; the couple are allowed to seek refnge in flight r instead of being exposed to the coarse conviviality customary in former times y speech-making is rapicly dropping out of fashion, and it may be hoped that in time two human beibgo, performing the most solemn act of their lives, will be ah lowed to get through the business quietly and seriously, without being exposed to the impertinent intrusions of tho outside wo*ld. The world, howeTer, is- not disposed to givs up his rights without a struggle. It is curious to remark how, evrn in London, the general public insist upon associating itself with what surely ought to beaprivate ceremony. The sight of a coachman with a white favor is sufficient to send a visible thrill of sensation through the population of a whole street. The doors of the church are thronged with a crowd as excited as though, instead of being absolute strangers, they were the attached tenantry of a feudal noble. Little knots of enthusiasts gather outside the house of the bride, and watch for hours on tho chance of a distant vision of a wreath of orange flowers, or of tne white waistcoat of a sheepish young gentleman. The philosopher would be interested by a clear analysis of the state of mind of these unbidden guests. Are the poor ragged figures which gaze through the doors of the social paradise actuated by communist sentiments? Ate they jealous of splendours which I they can never obtain, and repining at the arrangements [ which limit them to beer in place of champßgne ? Or do they feel that for the moment all ranks are levelled, and rejoice in the consciousness that after nil their social superiors are made of flesh nnd blood, and share the common passions of humanity ? Or, us is perhaps more probnble, is tho ordinniy emotion nothing but nn niiieflerhiig delight in the spectacle of well dn «ced Iddiesaud gentlemen, and visionary glimpses ol sumptuous living.